


Shifters Concept [Title In Progress]

by driftingashes



Series: Shifters: 'Verse Concepts [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Apocalypse, Concept, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders-centric, Demons, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28065225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driftingashes/pseuds/driftingashes
Summary: Remus is three years old and doing his best to give his mother and father a heart attack. (Unintentionally, of course.)Ten years old, facing down the monsters in his little brother's nightmares, standing guard on the nights where they're so intense that they seem to almost hover in the air, deadly holograms of light and the power of a terrified child's imagination. They didn't even know they had this kind of power, wouldn't have known until they were tested at school. Now, with no one to teach them and no way to control it, the twins lash out at anyone who gets too close, paranoia-fueled defensiveness that drives away any chance of surviving in a group.Remus is twenty when the monsters are finally eradicated.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders
Series: Shifters: 'Verse Concepts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2069277
Kudos: 9





	Shifters Concept [Title In Progress]

Remus is three years old and doing his best to give his mother and father a heart attack. Unintentionally, of course.

Four years old and curious about everything, laughing and content as he chases beetles and plays in the sandy backyard with Roman, his nine-minutes-younger twin brother. He has no idea the panic and brutality that the next five years will bring into his life, much less how he will cope with growing up alone. No one could have predicted the outbreaks, and when people finally start to realize, it's already much too late. But for now, the brothers play in the sand, and throw dirt at each other, and everything is as it should be. Peaceful. Content. Complacent. Perhaps a bit too much so.

Five years old, watching the TV screen flash with big words he doesn't understand, huge red letters that scream a too-late warning of danger that even Remus, although he cannot read some of the words they form, knows will catch up to them eventually. His mother looks horrified, his father quietly pacing the living room, running his hands through his hair and tugging at the strands. "Get the twins," he says quietly, and his mother instantly rounds up him and Roman, hurrying them into the living room. Their father kneels down and looks each of them in the eye. "You boys promise me to stick together, okay? No matter what happens, you both be there for each other." At the time, it had been an easy, meaningless deal. of course he would stay with his brother. Why would he ever leave him? They were _brothers_. The thought of them _not_ being attached at the hip was a foreign idea.

Eight years old, watching his world fall apart as his mother is dragged, screaming and flailing, into a void he knows instinctively she will not be returning from. As his father's bones splinter underneath his skin from a force Remus can neither see nor feel, not yet. He's too young for them to find him, and he creeps into the dark with a terrified, shaking Roman at his side. They teach each other how to defend themselves the night after that, not willing to go down without a fight. And there's now another thought lurking in Remus's thoughts: if he goes down, either protecting Roman or just on a supply run, he doesn't want his little brother completely defenseless.

Ten years old, facing down the monsters in his little brother's nightmares, standing guard on the nights where they're so intense that they seem to almost hover in the air, deadly holograms of light and the power of a terrified child's imagination. They didn't even know they had this kind of power, wouldn't have known until they were tested at school. Now, with no one to teach them and no way to control it, the twins lash out at anyone who gets too close, paranoia-fueled defensiveness that drives away any chance of surviving in a group.

Thirteen and staring in shock at the wall of green energy between his little brother and the snarling she-wolf intent upon getting to them. She claws at the barrier, her unnatural glowing eyes locked on Remus. She snarls, a warning and a promise, and shifts into a raven and disappears into the night with a muffled thump as her wings beat against the cold air. A mutant, although he hadn't understood at the time. He doesn't know what to think, a wolf turning into a bird and flying off right in front of his eyes. He's never seen a shifter up close before, doesn't understand the dangerous amount of power they held.

Fifteen, (almost sixteen, he thinks, but he cannot be sure anymore) and Roman is nearly taken from him on a trip into the decimated town for supplies and whatever else they can find and use. They're cornered just outside what used to be a Walmart, and Roman (the absolute idiot that he is) pushes Remus out of the way and takes a hit that sends him flying back against the side of the falling-apart Walmart. A nearly deadly blow that Remus knows was meant for him, and deliberately. He manages to get Roman home, and patches him up, scolding him the entire time to hide how close to tears he is. Roman sees right through him anyways, and pulls him into a gentle hug, whispering an apology. (Roman has always been the more emotional of the two, the gentle one.)

Eighteen (or close enough - time didn't mean much anymore) and they find another group of survivors, this one composed of kids, a couple of them young enough that they had been born into this life, thrust unwillingly into a world of confused chaos and death and uncertainty. Their unyielding bravery remind him of his mother when the apocalypse had first gone global, now...twelve, thirteen years ago? He can't quite remember now. Whatever the case, Remus takes them in, and Roman eventually grows closer with the oldest boy, Virgil.

In the hazy year he is nineteen, Thomas and Patton, (who stumbled upon their group and decided to stay when the invite was extended) found two other survivors hiding in what used to be a school. Janus and Patton had gone to the same high school, and while they didn’t seem too friendly towards each other, and had obviously never been on good terms, there was a certain comfort in recognizing a familiar face amidst all the chaos and change.

Remus is twenty when the monsters are finally eradicated by the remaining survivors. Over 98% of the population is dead, the survivors scattered and war-weary and some barely clinging to life. It is time to start over.

Twenty three, rolling his eyes as Virgil and Roman flirt (they call it fighting, but Remus isn't _that_ oblivious) and smack each other with little zaps of energy from their perches on opposite ends of the couch. Emile and Remy (a former school therapist and a sassy coffee shop barista, they couldn't be more different, but they make it work) watch fondly from the doorway, Remy's wings brushing against Emile's as their gazes land on Remus. He averts his eyes, tries not to stare, and he can see Emile frowning out of the corner of his eyes. "You okay?" Emile calls. He shrugs, and they drop it (to his relief) but he can feel them watching him. He can't bring himself to care.

Twenty three still, but months later, and it should be about mid-December. Almost Virgil's birthday. Toby (the kid got tall, now almost rivaling Missy and Andy) manages to whip up some better food than just the beans they have growing in the garden or the rather bland pasta noodles they have in the pantry. Food production and distribution had been made possible again about four months ago, and the world was starting to recover, bit by bit. Remus was glad of it. He had missed spaghetti. They had been able to heat up food with just a bit of energy from one of them, but the taste was dry and somehow rough, like old cardboard and Styrofoam. It was nice to have pizza again, too, if a bit sloppy from the mix of the experimental "government" foods, and some of their own home grown rations. It tasted somehow comforting. Safe. It reminded Remus of dinner at the clunky wooden table in the dining room, with his parents, when life had still been normal. Although he'd been so young, only about five or six when everything started, that he could barely even remember what 'normal' had felt like.

Twenty four, watching the world build up around them as technology recovered and was slowly perfected. Watched as people started to laugh again, smile. Watched as the children slowly became more accustomed to this strange new normal reminiscent of what peace had been before the apocalypse.

Twenty seven and watching as normal became solidified. The world took on a more permanent feeling. And he knew that the people who had survived through the apocalypse would never quite rid themselves of the lingering fear, the cold jolt if adrenaline that woke them on nights when the dreams got bad. But...it was a step in the right direction.

They’d be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> This was SUPER fun to write. I'm considering maybe going back through this and actually writing out the scenes, making this an actual book instead of flashes of scenes. Like, take each scene, flesh it out, and make an actual chapter out of it. I think that would be kind of fun!! Would anyone be interested in reading something like that? (Sorry for bigger paragraphs from mobile, I posted from a computer for once.)
> 
> ~Ash


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